After working nearly 30 years to pass major legislation to research treatments for Lyme disease, the tick-borne infection that causes more than 300,000 illnesses each year, Republican Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey is newly optimistic about a breakthrough.

The Senate Health Committee voted Thursday on a bipartisan basis to advance the upper chamber’s version of Smith’s bill after Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine renamed it to honor the late Sen. Kay Hagan, a North Carolina Democrat who died on Oct. 28 of complications from the tick-borne disease called Powassan virus. The legislation would require the Department of Health and Human Services to develop a national strategy to counter Lyme disease and boost funding for research, including a new $20 million-a-year funding stream to state governments through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.